As part of your career and business progression you need to uplevel your skills and communicate effectively at a distance, step into your personal power and demonstrate presence on screen. The use of video to share your message and create awareness of your personal or business brand is a requirement of both small business and big business.
I worked with a client in a corporate environment to help their team present from stage for their product showcase and to coach them through the video filming of the products. With the video coaching, I needed to help them create engagement and to convey influence and authority in just a few short minutes. As you are aware with video ads, Facebook lives and Insta reels coming up in your news feeds, you only have seconds to choose to whether you want to watch more.
Here are my tops tips to create screen impact for your brand.
Make an entrance. The first impression you make should match the credibility you want to build. If you're presenting for only a few minutes, you don't have as long to build authority with people. You need to rely on your image more. Whether that is relaxed or formal of colourful or monochromatic, what you wear and your overall look will have an initial impact.
Even if you think that the way you look is not important, your target audience may, so think about what they are assessing. Consider you could wear a simple branded shirt or polo, neat hair and I always recommend a warm smile to begin.
What’s your mood? Think about the mood you want to create with your video. Do you want your audience to feel interactive and warm? Do you want to establish your expertise? How much authority do you really want to express? What impression do you want to leave, is it knowledgeable, stylish, uplevel or perhaps likeable?
Style choice. The clothes you choose to wear and your colour choices convey messages. Dark colours are more authoritative and lighter shades are relaxed. Florals say feminine and friendly, busy patterns are confusing and happy colours are yellows, oranges and light blues. Jewel colours are always good on camera – not pastels or neutrals. Make up is a personal choice however as a minimum use translucent powder or matt primer and either a lipstick or for men a small amount of lip balm.
Stage styling. The styling of your stage is all part of the visual impact. Whether it’s an office space, kitchen or outside in a park, look at the backdrop and make sure it works. You don’t need a pole sticking out of your head or a messy open cupboard, too much ceiling or anything that will distract from you and your message. You could simply just use a plain background. Picture how your image will appear across various devices of different sizes.
Prepare. It is worth the effort to prepare the content you want to deliver and run through it a couple of times. Write down just a few bullet points of what you want to say and rehearse it. Use a timer so you are not just wafting on and be as succinct as possible. Preparation will help calm those nerves and boost your confidence.
Keep your notes handy as it is perfectly okay to refer to them from time to time. You are far better off just talking to the camera rather that from an autocue as it looks far more natural and relaxed. This take practise, however, if you must, a tele-prompter is an option.
Content. In crafting the content for your message, the main principle is to educate an online audience. They simply want to know WIFT. What is in it for them, what is their problem and how are you going to solve it? Why would they watch? You must show love to your audience and your clients and answer their fears and what it is they want to overcome.
As an example, the role of an image consultant is more than just dressing people. It’s how the consultant makes people feel. What they have helped the client with. It could be self-esteem issues or confidence to spend money on themselves.
Put your strongest point across first and repeat if you can. Focus on getting those main points across and focus on what your audience want to hear. Include a short story, an anecdote or an example of how your service helps and any points you’d like get across and stay on track. Remember what you’re there for.
Finally have a closing statement or call to action prepared and if need be, refer to it. It could simply be, call me on 1234 to find out more – or join my webinar next Thursday or read more in my blog.
Body language. Media is entertainment so there’s a sense of performance about your online delivery. You need to be slightly more animated and larger than life, but at the same time natural with the way you talk, gesture and how you smile.
People say relax, but you don’t want to sit back in your chair and slouch. Sit slightly forward, not too stiff – the way you are in normal conversation. You don’t want to sit there very still and keep your head still and your eyes still that would be too boring. Standing while delivering video content is always a good option and you don’t always have to be right in the centre.
Be bright and buoyant in your delivery but also don’t use wide gestures, fling your arms around or fidget with touching your face or hair as that would be too distracting. Your overall physical presence of gestures, how you look and sound all add to your authority. At the end of the day though it is about creating engagement and building rapport.
Don’t worry about weight, size, unusual voice or accent. You might think you look too old or too young/girly and not credible enough. Many television and movie stars, video influencers and politicians fit into these categories. The winning factor is your confidence and credibility with your message and that you know what you are talking about.
Image is not just outer – it’s the inner you and your personality and likeability that will reflect your own personal power, the unique you that we want to see shine.
Developing confident presentation skills will help you grow your personal brand. Learn more about communication when you sign up for my free eBook, The Secret to Your Personal Brand Revolution. Get Your Free eBook Now!
Sue Currie is an image entrepreneur who guides and empowers business leaders and entrepreneurs to have “Spotlight Confidence”. She is passionate about helping professionals elevate their personal and professional brand through her speaking, coaching and training programs on Self Brand, Style and Speaking Skills, providing a multi-faceted approach to gain high transformation for her clients.
